FICO Score Decreases... New Accounts... Thoughts?

[lovely222]

Hello, everyone. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and decided to ask the experts instead of mulling over it myself. I got a few new accounts so that I could decrease utilization as well as buy a new MacBook with 0% financing. So here is my story:

In November my TU FICO was 720. I checked it to see if I would be eligible for the Barclay Financing Visa. I applied and was approved for 3,000 (purchase was 1,772 which I've brought down to 1.5k). After this I also decided to apply for the Citi Platinum Select card and was approved for 6k and and the Discover More card and was approved for 5.5k. Before these cards my utilization was at about 30%. After the holidays and work travel (have to wait to be reimbursed) my utilization is 48% which I don't think is correct because my Nord Sig Visa is reporting a limit of 1k when it's actually 5k. 

I checked my scores in mid-December and they were TU 702 and EQ 699. I just checked Credit Karma for a TU indicator and it now says 668 and EQ FICO is 676 (Jan 2). The Discover More and Citi Platinum Select card are not yet reporting. I am aware that I need to bring down my utilization (ideally >10%), which is a goal with these cards as well as paying off things as the money comes in. 

Does anyone have thoughts on if my score will increase when the new cards report? They have dropped significantly and I'm worried. Any insight would be helpful.

Thank you!

[RobertEG]

New accounts have potential postive and negative impacts, as they normally extend to more than just one FICO  scoring category.

On the negative side, new accounts usually add a new inquiry to your credit file, and would, being initially at zero age, reduce your average age of accounts (AAoA).  Neither of these are usually  high-weighting FICO factors, but impact can vary dependng upon your scoring bracket.

In the period between application and account opening, all you will have is the negative affect of the new inquiry.  The positive effects wont kick in until the account is opened and reports to the CRA.

On the positive side, it will give you a higher overall CL, and may improve your % util if you keep its usage low.  If you had a thin credit file, adding of a new account might improve your credit mix.

So it requires an assessment of the overall potential impact of these factors.  The higher the CL on the new card, the more its addition improvement in your % util may offst the other factors.

It all depends.

[lovely222]

I will definitely keep the balances on the new cards low and pay down other balances. I'm kind of surprised my scores went down so much. But I'll just have to wait and see what happens when the new TLs report. So nerve wracking.